Ten Rules for Designing Web Pages for Low-Bandwidth and Elderly Readers

Aptivate's 2007 Ten Rules for Designing for Low-Bandwidth are:

• No Page Bigger Than 25kB
• Reduce Images
• Have Good Site Structure
• Use Style Sheets
• Minimise HTTP Requests
• Turn on Compression
• Be Cache-able
• Avoid PDFs
• Put Useful Items First
• Show Link Sizes

WebCredible has an interesting list (2006) Usability for Older Web Users:

• Designers should investigate innovative ways to communicate the fact that a page is not finished and requires scrolling
• Technical terms should be avoided if possible - and where they have to be used, a clear explanation must be easily accessible (including examples wherever appropriate)
• Links should be identified in a consistent and obvious way (e.g. blue, bold, underline, red on mouse-over)
• The attention-grabbing features on a page (e.g. headings, pictures, icons, instructions and bullets) should be links
• Visited links should change colour
• Provide an HTML-version of as much content as possible and do not require users to install software (even Adobe Acrobat) in order to be able to access information
• Make content as concise and clear as possible - consider providing two versions of the same content ('simple' and 'detailed') and allow users to decide which they want to access
• Sites should provide a 'Make the writing bigger' link with accompanying illustrations/icons and always use high contrast to display text e.g. black text on an off-white background
• Provide explicit instructions by using the imperative forms of verbs (e.g. 'Go to more details on...', 'Find a...', etc.)

A few years ago, almost no material on design for elderly readers came up on Google. Now there is much more.